Both candidates have distorted their claims. McCain claims he’s never sought “a single earmark or pork barrel project” for Arizona. But Politico and PolitiFact have found otherwise. | Composite image by POLITICO

McCain, Obama claims stretch the truth

Hillary Clinton was positively skewered during her failed presidential campaign for claiming she landed in Bosnia “under sniper fire,” but Barack Obama and John McCain have told their share of whoppers, too.

In no particular order, Politico, in partnership with PolitiFact, a partnership between the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, present McCain and Obama’s biggest distortions that escaped wide notice:

McCain claimed his gas tax holiday would cost as much as "a bridge to nowhere” or “another pork-barrel project."

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In an April interview on Fox News, McCain said his plan to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer would cost the federal government “very little. Maybe a ‘bridge to nowhere.’ Maybe another pork barrel project. And it should be made up by general revenues. Look, all I'm asking for is a little holiday.”

But McCain dramatically underestimated the fiscal impact of suspending the gas tax. According to 2007 figures from the IRS, suspending the gas tax in June, July and August would cost the federal government about $9 billion in lost revenue.

On the other hand, the estimated federal share of erecting the so-called bridge to nowhere was about $200 million, which Congress eliminated amidst an anti-earmark furor provoked by revelations that the planned span would have benefited only a few dozen residents of Gravina Island in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Obama claimed a law he “passed” reveals to the public which lobbyists are bundling cash.

During a January Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Obama boasted that “part of the reason that you know who’s bundling money for various candidates is because of a law I passed this year, which says: Lobbyists, if you are taking money from anybody and putting it together and then giving it to a member of Congress, that has to be disclosed.”

In fact, the bundling provision to which Obama was referring — and which his campaign bragged about in television ads — will not be implemented in time for the 2008 elections, partly because Obama led a partisan confirmation battle that crippled the agency charged with implementing the new rule.

McCain has voluntarily disclosed the names, addresses and occupations of his lobbyist bundlers (which will be required by Obama’s yet-to-be implemented provision) and his other bundlers. But Obama, who does not take money from lobbyists, only lists the names and addresses of his bundlers. Plus his claim is untrue.

McCain claimed Obama wants to bomb Pakistan.

In a February speech, McCain went after Obama, asserting the country couldn’t afford the "confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested bombing our ally Pakistan." Asked about the comment at a media availability the next day, McCain took it a step further, calling Obama’s views on Pakistan “naive. … You don't broadcast that you are going to bomb a country that is a sovereign nation and that you are dependent on the good will of the people of that country to help you in the war — in the struggle against Taliban and the sanctuaries which they hold.”

In fact, Obama never “suggested” or “broadcast” that he would bomb Pakistan.

Rather, in an August 2007 speech, he pledged to take out high-value terrorists hiding in Pakistan’s mountains with or without permission from Pakistan’s government.

“There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again,” he said. “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and [Pakistani] President Musharraf won't act, we will.”

Though McCain’s “bombing” claim was part of a broader argument against telegraphing military plans, it falsely implied Obama was advocating attacking an ally. PolitiFact ruled McCain’s statement pants-on-fire wrong.

Obama claimed McCain was OK with a 100-year war in Iraq.

During a February Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland, Obama said "We are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years."